I'm With You

Isn't anyone tryin to find me?

Won't someone please take me home?

It's a damn cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Wont you take me by the hand

Take me somewhere new

I don't know who you are

But I'm, I'm with you

I'm looking for a place

Searching for a face

Is there anybody here I know?

Cause nothings going right

And everything's a mess

And no one likes to be alone.

Avril Lavigne "I'm With You"

~

Cho Chang sat on her windowsill, staring out into the dark night sky. Tears filled her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She knew that she had to be strong in times like this, but she hurt so much. Before he died, she didn't even get to say goodbye, to say that she loved him. And that was exactly what was haunting her: regret.

Not able to control her tears anymore, she cried. And she let the tears comfort her. The pain was the only thing that was real about him now. It was the only real thing about Cedric.

~

On the other side of the castle, Harry Potter lay asleep in his bed...

"Harry! Harry..." a voice called from the middle of nowhere. That voice was so familiar.

Harry was standing in the middle of the Quidditch pitch. The full moon illuminated the grounds. Harry turned around again...

He almost yelled out loud when he saw what he saw. "Cedric!" Harry exclaimed. "B-but... Y-you're..."

"Dead? Yeah, I know. Don't freak out yet," Cedric said. Harry just stared in awe. It's not what you would've expected. Instead of a transparent ghostly figure of Cedric, there was... him, just like he looked before his death.

"You're asleep right now, Harry," Cedric told him. "I'm only here to help you... help someone."

"How are you- what are you doing- wait..." Harry stuttered, confused.

"This is a dream of yours. I was sent here to do some unfinished business. Since I obviously am not alive, I need your help."

"O-okay."

"Let me take you somewhere."

The Quidditch pitch dissolved around the two boys and a dormitory appeared in the surroundings. "This is a girls' dormitory," Harry said.

"Yeah, I know." Instead of looking at Harry when he said this, he was looking at something else. Harry turned his head... 'Cho,' he thought to himself.

Cho was sitting on her windowsill, taking sharp but quiet intakes of breath. She was crying.

"She's been like this ever since my death, Harry." They both quietly observed the crying girl. After watching for a while, Cedric whispered, "I regret it."

"Regret what?" Harry asked, confused.

"I never told her, Harry. She never knew- she never knew that I loved her."

Harry didn't know what to say to this.

"I want to touch her again, to hold her. I know I can't..."

"What did you want me to help you with, Cedric?" Harry asked him, quietly.

"I want you to give her something." Cedric shoved a box into Harry's hands.

Everything dissolved again... The next time Harry opened his eyes...

Harry opened his eyes. 'That was a weird dream,' he thought. Rolling over, he felt something sharp poke his back. "Ow!" he said, under his breath. The box...

~

Cho had left her dormitory, not wanting her roommates to wake up and find her crying. The sun had barely risen when she reached the lake. Gingerly, she sat against her rock... Their rock... Fresh tears threatened to overflow again. She quickly rubbed her eyes with her sleeve.

Crunching fall leaves caught her attention. Quickly, she turned her head.

"Harry! What are you doing here?"

"May I...?" he asked, awkwardly.

"Sure," she answered, making more room for him beside her.

After an awkward silence, she said, "Harry, I appreciate your kindness, but I can't-"

Harry cut her off. "Wait. Let me explain." Taking out the box from his pocket, he handed it to her. "From Cedric. He wanted you to have it. I would've given it to you earlier, but I think he wanted you to have it today."

Looking curiously at Harry, she then inverted her attention to the box. Opening it, she gasped. Gingerly, she lifted a gold locket out of the interior. "It's beautiful!"

"I think there's something written on the inside."

Cho opened it up to find a picture of her and Cedric. On the opposite side of the picture were the words 'To Cho, my one and only. I love you.'

"He wanted to tell you himself."

"Thank you," she whispered.

Harry quietly left her to herself.

Staring across the lake, she saw a shadow, a ghost almost... Cedric.

She gasped. The ghost looked directly at her. "Live your life, Cho. It's what I want," his voice whispered. Although his figure was across the lake, his voice seemed as if he was right beside her, whispering into her ear.

"I don't want to forget you, I can't," she whispered back.

"You don't have to... Live your life... No regrets..." his ghostly figure faded slowly with his voice, but before he disappeared completely, she called to him, "I promise, Cedric. I will live for you. I love you."

A small gust of wind swept over the lake towards her and Cedric disappeared completely. "I'm with you always..." his voice whispered into her ear.

"Always," she whispered.